An axis changeover apparatus according to the invention changes axes of movement of a machine tool having axes with the same direction of movement, such as a cross rail axis and quill axis. A check is performed to determine the commanded strokes along axes (Z and W axes) from machining commands supplied by an NC command tape (1). If a move command has a commanded stroke which exceeds a set limit stroke value, the portion of the commanded stroke which exceeds the value is converted into a commanded stroke along the other axis having the same direction of movement, thereby elongating the apparent stroke.